Christopher Pyle

Ellen Story

Sean Wilentz

With the tight and problematic presidential election on everyone's mind, the Weissman Center for Leadership will conclude its fall series on democracy with a panel discussion titled “Elections 2000: Implications for American Democracy” Monday, November 13, at 7:30 pm, in Gamble Auditorium.

Moderated by Christopher Pyle, MHC professor of politics, the panel discussion will feature Theodore J. Lowi, a leading political scientist; Ellen Story, state representative for Massachusetts; and Sean Wilentz, a noted American historian who served as an expert witness during the Clinton impeachment hearings.

In addition to offering their own views on the election, the panelists will discuss any evidence regarding major shifts in public opinions and party alignments that might have significance for future elections; the reasons for low voter turnout; what the recent election tells us about the nature of American political leadership in the twenty-first century; and what impact the impeachment and trial of President Clinton had on the elections.

About the Panelists

Theodore J. Lowi, John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions at Cornell University, is well known for his books, which include The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States, The End of the Republican Era, and Embattled Democracy: Politics and Policy in the Clinton Era (coauthored with Benjamin Ginsberg). Lowi served as president of the International Political Science Association from 1997–2000, and received the Outstanding Mentor of Women in Political Science Award in 1996.

Ellen Story, a Democrat, represents the towns of Amherst, Pelham, and Shutesbury, Massachusetts. The first woman to represent her district, Story has served in the legislature since 1992. Her priorities include education (especially public higher education), affordable health care (including mental health care), union-related issues, and welfare reform.

Sean Wilentz, Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and director of the Program in American Studies at Princeton University, is a contributing editor and a frequent contributor to the New Republic and publishes widely in popular and scholarly journals. He is the author of Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788–1850, which won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Albert J. Beveridge Award, and The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America (coauthored with Paul E. Johnson). He also provided expert testimony during the Clinton impeachment hearings.